Eddie Jordan has no doubt that next year, when Lewis Hamilton becomes Charles Leclerc’s new team-mate at Ferrari, the Italian team can return to the top contenders for race and championship victories.
In the last four stages of the season, the seven-time world champion scored 80 points (Oscar Piastri scored the same number, by the way), which is more than both Red Bull Racing (78) and Ferrari (75) drivers earned during the same period. The Mercedes team has managed to modernize the car surprisingly effectively this year, although it did not start the championship with much confidence.
But now the W15 is allowing Hamilton and George Russell to regularly challenge for wins, and had the disqualification at Spa not occurred, Mercedes would have further closed the gap to Ferrari in the constructors’ championship.
“I think Lewis at the beginning of the season was more focused on the fact that he was going to Ferrari, how he could bring the people he needed with him, but he was mostly worried about how he could get the support of Frederic Vasseur,” Jordan said on the Formula for Success podcast. “But now I see Lewis is completely focused on fighting on the track again.
“I think he can fight for the title next year. With him, Ferrari will be a great team and everyone at Maranello will be happy to see Lewis back in form. Mercedes will also perform quite confidently, but Ferrari will be incredibly strong.”
David Coulthard agrees with these predictions: “It can be said that although Hamilton is already counting down the days left before he says goodbye to Mercedes, it seems that he is back to his previous excellent level. But the reality is that in his mind he is already preparing for the partnership with Ferrari and for the move to Italy.”
Source: F1 News
I am Christopher Clyde, an experienced journalist and content writer with a passion for sports. I have been writing about Formula 1 news for the past five years and am currently employed as an author at athletistic.com, one of the top sports websites in the US.
